Dads helping dads

Our mission is to ​support and empower fathers by offering opportunities for connection, education, and community engagement. We do this through holding events and groups, aggregating and providing resources, and modeling positive, sensitive, and engaged fatherhood within the larger community.

Events and Groups


Note: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dad Guild is only offering virtual events. ​

Check-ins and Support

An important part of our mission is to foster genuine connection among fathers, and while all of our events and groups are opportunities to get together (even if only virtually), we also offer specific check-ins where we can help support one another.
  • Marco Polo - Two dozen fathers have been participating in our Dad Guild Marco Polo group, developing some of the strongest friendships among men we have ever witnessed. Reach out to us via our contact page if you'd like to join!
  • Weekly Zoom Check-ins - Every Wednesday night 8:45PM to 10:00PM we gather to talk about our day/week and help each other celebrate the wins and manage the stresses of fatherhood. For more info, sign up for the newsletter or shoot us an email.
  • Active Facebook Group - Our Dad Guild Burlington Facebook group has seen a tremendous increase in usage this year, with folks looking for advice, making connections, and sharing hilarious videos.

Book Group

In collaboration with the Fletcher Free Library Dad Guild offers a book club for fathers. We offer a different book every month for folks to pick up at the library and then participate in two Zoom discussions. We reflect on topics from the book, and talk about how it impacts our parenting and our communities as a whole.

Dad Guild Warmline

This statewide service allows fathers to reach out whenever they need someone to talk to. Maybe you're stressed, want to get some recipe ideas, or just want to hear our opinion regarding the best Vin Diesel movie (The Iron Giant, save yourself a call). We're calling it a warmline because no one will answer the phone, but you'll be able to leave a message and we'll get back to you at our earliest convenience. You are also welcome to send a text message as well if you prefer. And yes, this is also our general contact phone number. We have one free Google Voice number. That's how we roll. Get in touch today at (802) 318-4231.

Dads' Night In

Dad Guild offers monthly virtual game nights via Zoom. Past events have included Jackbox Games and most recently Among Us!

Discussion Groups

At present, we have just one regular discussion group, but it could not be about a more important topic!
  • "Lets Talk about Racism" -  a committed group of dads meet every other week to focus on our organization's anti-racism efforts. To-date the group has helped us craft our Anti-Racism Statement and put together a great starter list of resources to help us improve and keep the conversation going.

Dadvocates

One of Dad Guild's driving tenets is community engagement. Our Dadvocate program empowers fathers throughout the state of Vermont by providing numerous opportunities for dads to get involved and make their communities healthier, happier, and more equitable places to live. So far, we have: 
  • Raised over  $3,300  to bring Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to the City of Winooski
  • Donated 100% of profits from sweatshirt sales to the Mawuhi African Market moving and transition funds fundraiser
  • Collected toys and money for dads in need around the holiday season
  • Facilitated a community drive for Winooski Mutual Aid, raising over $400 and collecting kids' hygiene products and art kits for nearly 50 children
  • Assisted in collecting child care stories from fathers for Let's Grow Kids, and their movement to make child care affordable and equitable for all
  • Launched the Dadvocate Giving Circle that focuses on raising awareness and funds for organizations addressing issues of systemic racism
And you'd better believe we aren't done yet. Stay tuned to see what's next!

Special Events

Dad Guild regularly partners up with other community organizations to offer special events that reach a larger audience. Previous partners have included The Family Room, ECHO, Building Bright Futures, Seed & Sew, Let's Grow Kids, and The Winooski Family Center. While the COVID-19 pandemic has made many of these types of events impossible for now, we hope to resume them in the future once it is safe to do so.

Resources

We encourage fathers to model vulnerability and talk about fatherhood topics as much as possible, across a variety of platforms. Normalizing fatherhood engagement is extremely important in our work, and the sharing of personal stories and perspectives is crucial to our success. Please reach out if you have a perspective you would like to share, and want support getting it out there.

Anti-Racism

Our organization is dedicated to doing our part to help dismantle systemic racism in our society, and we’re encouraging all fathers connected to Dad Guild to be a part of the solution as well. We're still working through how best we can contribute, but as part of that process we want to share what we're finding.

​Media Coverage

Read all about the start of our organization in this KidsVT cover story from 2019.
Check out this 2-minute feature on Local 22/44 News regarding Dad Guild, and the importance of social connections for fathers.

Past Newsletters

​Our main method of engagement with our members is via our newsletter and the associated event calendar. It's the best way to stay up-to-date on all that we're doing!

Sign up for the Dad Guild Newsletter

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​© 2020 Dad Guild, Inc. ​​